How to Avoid the Curse of Knowledge

What’s the curse of knowledge

Bad writing doesn’t always come from bad faith. The curse of knowledge poison the writing of well intentionned and smart people. When you write thinking that your audience will understand your writing because they know everything that you know of course. You don’t know what your audiences doesn’t know.

List of recommadations to guard yourself against the curse of knowledge

• Assume that your audience know less than you think they do rather than more. It keeps your writing accessible.
• Keep track of what your text requires from your audience as to clarify what they know
• If you see an abstract noun and ask yourself:

Is this a description of a feeling? if yes, replace with one example of how that feeligns manifest in people in way that we can observe concretely. If it’s you it’s a description of something abstract see if a concrete analogy or a simpler explanation can improve the writing.

• Avoid jargon and if you must employ a difficult expression, define it.
• Avoid abbreviations at all cost